Eggplant is the second most important solanaceous berry-producing crop after tomato. Despite mapping studies based on bi-parental progenies and GWAS approaches having been performed, an eggplant intraspecific high-resolution map is still lacking. We developed a RIL population from the intraspecific cross ‘305E40’, (androgenetic introgressed line carrying the locus Rfo-Sa1 conferring Fusarium resistance) x ‘67/3’ (breeding line whose genome sequence was recently released). One hundred and sixty-three RILs were genotyped by a genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) approach, which allowed us to identify 10,361 polymorphic sites. Overall, 267 Gb of sequencing data were generated and ~773 M Illumina paired end (PE) reads were mapped against the reference sequence. A new linkage map was developed, including 7249 SNPs assigned to the 12 chromosomes and spanning 2169.23 cM, with iaci@liberoan average distance of 0.4 cM between adjacent markers. This was used to elucidate the genetic bases of seven traits related to anthocyanin content in different organs recorded in three locations as well as seed vigor. Overall, from 7 to 17 QTLs (at least one major QTL) were identified for each trait. These results demonstrate that our newly developed map supplies valuable information for QTL fine mapping, candidate gene identification, and the development of molecular markers for marker assisted selection (MAS) of favorable alleles.

Conservation, characterization and exploitation of agrobiodiversity are key factors to guarantee food security and face future challenges such as climate changes. These issues are the subject of a series of international agreements, such as the Convention of Biological Diversity, with its Nagoya Protocol, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004. Italy ratified the Treaty in 2004 and instituted a long-lasting program, RGV-FAO, to implement it. CREA is one of the three organizations involved in the RGV-FAO Program, together with the National Research Council (CNR) and Reti Semi Rurali. CREA maintains a total of 40,186 accessions including cereals, vegetables, fruits, forages, industrial crops, forest and woody crops, medicinal and aromatic plants, and their wild relatives. Accessions are conserved using different ex situ conservation systems (seeds, in vivo plants, vegetative organs and in vitro plantlets), and characterized using genetic, morpho-phenological and/or biochemical methods. Herein, we will present the CREA long-lasting program RGV-FAO with some examples of the use of plant genetic resources in breeding programs, including molecular approaches. Some critical issues related to access and benefit sharing in PGRFA, such as the Nagoya Protocol and the Digital Sequence Information, will be discussed, highlighting their potential impact on food security and on the advancement of knowledge.

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) arrived in Europe in the sixteenth century from the American continent and spread across the old continent as a result of adaptation to different climatic and geographical conditions, as well as selection for different cultivation techniques and eating habits. This expansion gave rise to a huge number of landraces, which have now been largely replaced by more productive cultivars. To avoid losing this genetic diversity heritage, it is essential to characterize the genetic resources at risk of extinction for correct in situ/ex situ conservation and as a first step toward promoting and relaunching their exploitation. In this article, we report the study of a group of Borlotti beans, both landraces and modern cultivars, which are typically cultivated in Northern Italy. The aim was to explore the variability within the assembled Borlotti panel to assess whether landraces have maintained their morphological and genetic identity over time during on-farm cultivation. In particular, we investigated whether it is possible to distinguish between landraces and commercial accessions, a topic that has so far been understudied, but in the field of conservation, it is particularly important because it allows for the prioritization of preserving genetic resources. We found distinctive traits among the various accessions, with only a few landraces maintaining their identity, many of which should more properly be defined as obsolete cultivars. Taken together, these data indicate that it is possible to establish a priority scale for in/ex situ conservation by comparing landraces and cultivars using morphological and genetic data. Furthermore, thanks to geographical isolation, on-farm conservation has proven to still be successful in maintaining the identity of landraces.

The Asparagus genus includes approximately 240 species, the most important of which is garden asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.), as this is a vegetable crop cultivated worldwide for its edible spear. Along with garden asparagus, other species are also cultivated (e.g., Asparagus maritimus L.) or have been proposed as untapped sources of variability in breeding programs (e.g., Asparagus acutifolius L.). In the present work, we applied reduced-representation sequencing to examine a panel of 378 diverse asparagus genotypes, including commercial hybrids, interspecific lines, wild relatives of garden asparagus, and doubled haploids currently used in breeding programs, which enabled the identification of more than 200K single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These SNPs were used to assess the extent of linkage disequilibrium in the diploid gene pool of asparagus and combined with preliminary phenotypic information to conduct genome-wide association studies for sex and traits tied to spear quality and production. Moreover, using the same phenotypic and genotypic information, we fitted and cross-validated genome-enabled prediction models for the same set of traits. Overall, our analyses demonstrated that, unlike the diversity detected in wild species related to garden asparagus and in interspecific crosses, cultivated and wild genotypes of A. officinalis L. show a narrow genetic basis, which is a contributing factor hampering the genetic improvement of this crop. Estimating the extent of linkage disequilibrium and providing the first example of genome-wide association study and genome-enabled prediction in this species, we concluded that the asparagus panel examined in the present study can lay the foundation for determination of the genetic bases of agronomically important traits and for the implementation of predictive breeding tools to sustain breeding.

Non‐proteinaceous and proteinaceous antinutrients in common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) seeds can negatively affect human nutrition by reducing mineral bioavailability and impairing protein digestibility during digestion, respectively. However, many of these compounds also possess strong antioxidant properties that can help protect the plant from oxidative stress. While strategies to reduce antinutrient levels have been proposed to enhance the nutritional value of beans, less attention has been given to their potential protective functions, particularly under abiotic stress conditions. In the context of ongoing global climate change – marked by more frequent and prolonged drought and heat stress – there is a significant research gap concerning the influence of these environmental stresses on the accumulation and function of seed antinutrients in common beans. This perspective paper reviews current knowledge on the production of antioxidative antinutrients in response to abiotic stress and highlights the dual role of these compounds. It also outlines key research directions needed to better understand how climate‐induced stress may alter antinutrient levels, and the implications this may have for both human nutrition and plant resilience. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.